headmaster

English

Etymology

From head +‎ master.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdˌmæstɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdˌmɑːstə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstə(ɹ), -ɑːstə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: head‧mas‧ter

Noun

headmaster (plural headmasters)

1. (chiefly UK, Ireland) A male school principal.

Usage notes

The term is gender-specific, and refers to a male in the position. A female in the same role would be called a headmistress. In the United States, the shortened version of 'master' was used in few universities to refer to the faculty leader of a residential space regardless of gender.

Synonyms

• headteacher (UK, gender-neutral)
• principal (US, gender-neutral)

Translations

the most senior master in a school (male)

Arabic: مُدِير m (mudīr) Bulgarian: директор (bg) m (direktor) Chinese: Mandarin: 校長／校长 (zh) (xiàozhǎng) Dutch: schoolhoofd (nl) n Finnish: rehtori (fi); johtajaopettaja French: directeur (fr) m, principal (fr) m (collège), proviseur (fr) m (lycée) German: Schulleiter (de) m Greek: διευθυντής (el) m (diefthyntís) Greenlandic: atuarfiit pisortaat, atuarfiup pisortaa Hebrew: מְנַהֵל m (menahél) Hungarian: igazgató (hu), iskolaigazgató (hu) Irish: uachtarán m, ardmháistir m Italian: preside (it) m Japanese: 校長 (ja) (こうちょう, kōchō) Korean: 교장(校長) (ko) (gyojang) Manx: ard-vainshtyr m, ard-ynseyder m, ard-er-ynsee m Marathi: मुख्याध्यापक (mr) m (mukhyādhyāpak), प्राचार्य m (prācārya) Polish: dyrektor (pl) m Portuguese: diretor (pt) m Romanian: director (ro) m Russian: дире́ктор (ru) m (diréktor) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: директор m, равнатељ m Roman: director m, ravnatelj (sh) m Spanish: director (es) Swedish: rektor (sv) c Thai: ครูใหญ่ (th) (kruu-yài) Ukrainian: дире́ктор m (dyréktor) Vietnamese: hiệu trưởng (vi) (校長) Welsh: prifathro (cy) m

Anagrams

• headstream